“He wants to visit Butch. I don’t want him anywhere near Butch. Cheryl and I aren’t talking right now. She blames me for everything that went down.” He ran fingers through his hair. Alex suddenly looked old. The other man had a part within the club even though he’d been in Vegas for a great deal of time running a casino. Since finding out about his son, Alex had turned the casino over to a guy he trusted who ran the main bulk of their affairs. Alex did everything he could from Fort Wills.
“Why won’t you let him?” Whizz asked. Butch was still a stepfather to the kid and been in his life a little longer than Alex.
“Look, it was my idea him working for Gonzalez, okay? Tiny and I agreed it would help us. I didn’t tell him to start feeding information to the Savage Brothers. I thought they were fucking dead, wiped out by Gonzalez’s old man.” Alex leaned back in his chair, staring across the room at the other kids. “I don’t want him around Butch. How can we fucking trust him?”
Before Whizz could respond Cheryl charged into the room. She didn’t stop until she was in front of Alex. “How fucking dare you tell Michael he can’t see Butch?” She raised her hand and landed a slap across Alex’s face.
Whizz stood as Alex got to his feet. He’d never seen Alex lose it, but the way he was shooting fire at Cheryl, he looked ready to snap. The tension left from Gonzalez was still in the air.
“Alex, cool it. She’s Butch’s.” Whizz tried to warn the man.
“Butch nearly got us all fucking killed because he was too fucking stupid. He kept shit to himself when he should have told us. I don’t want my son mixed up with him.”
Cheryl stepped closer, glaring at Alex. “Butch is more of a father to my son than you are. You’re just a fucking sperm donor. Butch did what he had to because you asked him. He got dragged into this shit because of the club. The only person to blame for all of this crap is you. Don’t you dare tell my son who he can visit or not.”
Alex grabbed her arm as she made to walk off.
“I’m not a sperm donor.”
“You’re sure as shit nothing else.” Cheryl shrugged his arm off.
Whizz was shocked yet impressed. Cheryl had always given off the impression of being a good little girl who wouldn’t cause any waves, yet she was proving there was a lot more to her than met the eye. The way she stood up to Alex was something to be admired.
“Fuck, I’m always getting it fucking wrong with her and with him.”
“Butch put his life on the line. I don’t agree with how he went about it with the Savage Brothers, but he did what he thought was best.” At the time Whizz had been so angry. In hindsight he’d seen it from Butch’s side. He’d only been trying to help The Skulls yet had felt his loyalty torn. The Savage Brothers were supposed to be dead, and all of a sudden Butch saw his past once again, living and breathing. Whizz couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going on in Butch’s head. He knew he’d be fucked. Whizz didn’t have another club. The Lions were all gone, and before that, his family was dead. He didn’t have any enemies or a past. Every part of his past had come through the time he spent at the club. His only real enemy was a full-figured woman with blue hair and guilt. Lacey was his enemy. She was the woman he couldn’t hurt.
Alex shook his head. “I’ve got to go.”
Eva started moving the kids out of the kitchen. “Will you clean this up?”
Angel nodded, looking sheepish.
Whizz stayed sat as he watched Angel start to clean away the mess the kids had made.
“They never fail to surprise me,” she said, smiling as she cleaned up the mess.
“You’re the first woman I know who can smile over maple syrup.” Whizz ran fingers through his hair in an attempt to push the length off his face.
“I like cleaning and cooking.” She wrung out the cloth and turned to him. “How is your, erm, your lady friend? Is she okay? Does she need more clothes?”
Whizz cursed. “I need to get some food otherwise she’s going to start thinking I forgot about her.”
“I’ll make her something.” Angel finished clearing away the mess and started looking in the cupboards. Out of all of the women Angel was the sweetest.
“Lacey’s doing fine,” Whizz said.
She stopped, holding a box of baking powder in her grip. Angel turned toward him. “Are you sure? She lost her whole club.”
Whizz frowned. “How do you know what happened?”
“Lash, he told me what happened. He usually doesn’t like talking about the club. With everything that happened, he wanted to talk about it. I was there as well, at the hospital when Lacey first arrived.” She offered a smile.
Angel’s sweetness was refreshing. The years she’d been within the club married to Lash hadn’t really changed her. She was innocence through and through, yet she could stick up for herself. Whizz saw she was no longer skittish around the club. If anything, the club looked more her domain than ever before.
“It’s okay. I don’t mind Lash talking about what happened. It was fucking strange.” Whizz looked past her shoulder as she started working. “She’s going to be fine. I’ve got to believe that even though she’s going through so much.”
“She lost her club. You’ve got to remember that.”
He’d never forget what she lost. He had been there and had helped her lose the club. Whizz had played his part in the scheme of things.
“How’s everyone doing?” Gash asked, entering the kitchen. On his arm was a little raven haired siren. She looked in her early twenties and had been at the club for the last couple of months. Whizz recalled her trying to get into his bed, but he really wasn’t interested. For the life of him he couldn’t remember her name.
“Good,” Angel said, keeping her back to them.
She started working up some pancakes for Lacey. Pancakes with bacon and maple syrup were Angel’s specialty. She really was a good cook, a fantastic cook. Whizz loved it when he found Angel in the kitchen. Whenever she was at the clubhouse everyone ate well.
Whizz nodded.
“Come on, Gash, I can make it worth your while.”
“I’m not interested, Raven,” Gash said. He took a seat at the table with the sweet-butt hanging on his arm. “Will you put some pancakes on for me?”
Angel glanced behind her and nodded.
“Why are you paying her attention and not me?” Raven asked, pouting.